ENDANGERED

I am weak and vulnerable.
I long to arise like a fallen hero and be memorable.
My past is dirty and horrible.
My present questionable and my future seemingly unachievable.
My hope seems to be but a written parable.
Parables trapped in a fiery fleeting article.
I have become a substance of ridicule.
Yet I still believe in a miracle.
I refuse to mourn for my future.
The smiling maws of the preying vulture;
Gives me reasons to ponder.
Everywhere they lay carpets of danger.
Temptation crawling into my forsaken shelter.
Enemy nets awaiting my capture.
Sometimes I really wonder.
Will I ever reap the ultimate seed of rapture?
Perfectly projected prayers pushed to pamper the perceived perpetual protector.
So I crawl, I walk, I run, I fall and I rise, but still at the same juncture.
The one legged wheel with my emancipation has gained an endless puncture.
The ceaseless stabbings of fear in my conscience sometimes render me petrified to venture.
Yet I must be heard and would not be taken out of the matchless picture.
Surviving, fighting and conquering has now become my nature.
Envious claws lay bare to tear apart the sacred treasure.
But to be or not to be, lies only in the hands of my maker.

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Editor’s Note

The number one question our editors receive is—what do the editors and judges look for when judging the contest? The number one answer we give is creativity. Unlike prose, writing composed in everyday language, poetry is considered a creative art and requires a different type of effort and a certain level of depth. Of the thousands of poems entered in each contest, the ones that catch our judges’ eyes are the ones that remove us, even just slightly, from the scope of everyday life by using language that is interesting, specific, vivid, obscure, compelling, figurative, and so on. Oftentimes, poems are pulled aside for a second look based simply on certain words that intrigued the reader. So first and foremost, be sure your poetry is written using creative language. Take general ideas and make them personal. In his infamous book De/Compositions: 101 Good Poems Gone Wrong, W. D. Snodgrass imparts, “We cannot honestly discuss or represent our lives, any more than our poems, without using ideational language.”